Tag: Richie Incognito

Dolphins fans, I was in stunned disbelief last night when the news broke. Was I dreaming? Was this an April Fool’s Day joke 3 weeks early? This couldn’t be real, could it? The Dolphins traded Jonathan Martin…..to an NFL team? I thought maybe they could get some canadian bacon from a CFL team in exchange for him….but….WHAAAAT?

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My eyes were not playing tricks on me, the Dolphins have indeed traded Jonathan Martin to the 49ers for a conditional 7th round draft pick. Before learning of the actual ‘conditions’ of the trade, I sent out the following tweet:

If the Dolphins got a conditional sack of paper clips in exchange for Jon Martin (who was in NO WAY coming back), they made out like bandits

Sorry Dolphins fans, but I’m done with Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito. Done. D-O-N-E. We’ve all been hearing about this bullying story since October and quite frankly, I’ve had enough. It’s been an ongoing soap opera for almost 4 months now and it seems (as we thought) that it was overblown and was much to do about nothing.

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First, Martin leaves the team and claims that Incognito bullied him. Then, the racial, disgusting text messages come out from Martin’s camp. Then, Incognito gives his side of the story and the texts seem like they were exchanged between friends. Then there’s the infamous ‘dinner’ accusation where Martin reportedly left a dinner after Incognito used a racial slur. A police chief and former Dolphins Anthony Fasano both dispute that claim.

On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins will come to a fork in the road. Will the Ryan Tannehill led Dolphins travel down the road that the Chad Henne, Cleo Lemon, and John Beck Dolphins ventured down? Or will the Ryan Tannehill led Dolphins travel down the newly paved road…the one that hasn’t been used for a few years (since 2008)? Will Sunday’s performance be ‘the same old Dolphins’? Or will we see what a new franchise quarterback can do? Will we see a coaching staff, despite their issues, prepare their team well enough to make a statement and hopefully make the playoffs? We’ll know very soon.

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The Dolphins will lay it all on the line on Sunday (we hope), with a second chance to earn a postseason berth. That’s right, they laid an egg in their first chance to take a strangle hold on the #6 seed, but instead shot themselves in the foot….repeatedly. The players want to make the playoffs…..they want to beat the Jets again……they want all of their hard work to pay off in the form of a playoff berth…..they want to reach a place the Dolphins have only sniffed once in the last decade. BUT, Joe Philbin and Jeff Ireland NEED this team to win on Sunday. They need the Dolphins to take care of their own business and hope to get some help in Cincinnati or San Diego. If they don’t, I contend that the Dolphins should press the reset button and start over. Fire them. Both. Start over. I have no idea if Stephen Ross feels the same way, but he should.

The Dolphins should re-instate or release Richie Incognito immediately, and my vote is for re-instatement.

With the news that Ted Wells is likely to present his findings after the conclusion of the season, there is no longer a legitimate reason to postpone the decision.

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If Richie Incognito came out of the tunnel to start against the New England Patriots, I believe he would get an overwhelming amount of support from the home crowd. It is also clear that his teammates love and trust him. I have heard many of them say, for years, that if they had to pick one guy to have their back in a dark alley, it would be Richie.

The Miami Dolphins are in the midst of a playoff race, so this is really the last thing I want to be writing about. If you’ve noticed, we haven’t written much about the Jonathan Martin, Richie Incognito saga over the past few weeks. Why? Well, because the NFL’s investigation is still ongoing AND I’ve had enough of the story. Let’s just get to the results of the investigation already!

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Anyway, on Tuesday we learned that NFL Investigator, Ted Wells canceled his second round of interviews with Incognito and eleven other Dolphins players. According to ESPN, Wells met last week with Jonathan Martin, but at that meeting Martin refused to turn over the alleged text messages that helped to make this a national story.

As soon as I read that Richie Incognito had been suspended indefinitely by the Miami Dolphins, I thought a four game suspension was coming.

One fourth of a season seems to be the standard penalty for many serious offenses.

It turns out that it is actually the most the team will be able to suspend him before they have to decide to put him back on the roster or release him, according to article 42 in the collective bargaining agreement.

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The Dolphins are also allowed to deduct one more paycheck on top of that for a total of nearly $1.3 million.

The Miami Dolphins probably do not want to release Richie when you consider how quickly the team dismissed Chad Johnson in 2012 for conduct detrimental to the team.

Dolphins fans, we’ve had our share of low points over the last decade, haven’t we? And yet, every time we reach a new low, the Miami Dolphins somehow find a way to fall even further. I’m hesitant to say that we’ve officially reached rock bottom. Because, who knows? If you are a Dolphins fan that has full faith that the team will turn things around, you might not want to continue reading much more.

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The Dolphins had a chaotic week following the Jonathan Martin/Richie Incognito situation. Many, like me, thought that they would be galvanized and come out against the 0-8 Buccaneers and play angry. Well, they didn’t. In fact, they fell behind 15-0 in the first half. Ryan Tannehill did manage to lead the Dolphins down the field before the half, completing 8 of 8 and capping it off with a touchdown pass to Rishard Matthews to cut the deficit to 15-7.

The Miami Dolphins haven’t played a football game in 11 days and with all of the craziness that the last week has brought, it’s about time! The Dolphins return to the field tonight to take on the Bucs in Tampa Bay. The Bucs are 0-8, but if you look at their games and statistics more closely, you’ll see that they will be a tough matchup for the Dolphins.

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The question that everyone is asking is how the Dolphins will respond to all of the drama surrounding the Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin situation. Will the effects of being under the media microscope hurt the Dolphins ability to focus and play? Or will the team come out and play as a united team in an ‘us against the world’ moment? We’ll know after tonight’s game.

Ironically and hysterically, the Miami Dolphins players welcomed the media into the locker room by blaring circus music. It’s been that kind of week I guess. Today, during the post-practice press conference, Joe Philbin essentially declined to talk about the Martin/Incognito situation until the NFL investigation is over with.

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Ryan Tannehill, however, stood up for Incognito and tried to explain that the focus of the team is on the Tampa Bay Bucs. Here are a few of the tweets recapping Tannehill’s comments:

Ryan Tannehill: “If you asked Jonathan Martin who his best friend is on this team two weeks ago, he’d say Richie Incognito.”

This is a very interesting comment to me. Taken at face value, it hurts Martin’s case. But the possibility also exists that Martin was intimidated by Richie and wanted to become friends with him in the hopes that the jokes, etc. would stop. Considering the source, the seemingly squeaky clean Tannehill, you have to at least think that he’s telling you what he really feels. Just another twist in this rapidly changing and evolving story. Continue Reading

Ricky Williams has a lot in common with Jonathan Martin. Both players went to high school in Southern California, have dealt with mental health issues and have been called weirdos by teammates.

Ricky is African American (Martin is bi-racial) and has also walked out on the Miami Dolphins, but even he is not completely comfortable siding with Martin.

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In an interview with KMGZ radio in San Francisco, Williams states “to me there is no room to play the victim or to be bullied or to even have that discussion when it comes to the NFL. If you’re having that discussion it just means that maybe you don’t belong in the NFL.”